The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-03-18
You have heard the story ! tell tonight.
OF thai Wonderful mar. 6enoni WRIGHT.


It has gained little along the way
His frame was built Of the stuff that wins,
I And he stood six feet in his moccasins.
He could fell an with blow Of his fist,
He could carry to mill, five miles, grst
OF corn TO DO ground, two hundred weight,
And enjoy it, walking an easy gait.
His appetite nothing could subdue,
So he ate for an hour and let that do,
And one AYERS, that at ninety, dead,
He hadn't an unsound tooth in his head.
Up there on that grand old mountain height,
With lofter submits in full sight,
To the south Ascutney and in the west
Green Mountains rising crest on crest,
The Granite hills along the east,
On which painters soul might feast,
Connecticut valley far outspread-
Is it any wonder that into the head
or Benoni Wright great thought came
Big as the mountain that bears his names
He was born for prophet and nothing less,
He had heard the call and had answered, yes!
So to wean himself from the worlds delights,
And rise in soul to prophetic heights,
He proposed to fast forty days and nights.
But it takes powerful saint to fight
| A rousing Green Mountain appetite,
And there in that breezy, bracing cline,
A man wants to cat most all the time.
| The future awaited him, grand and weird,
But prophet was nothing without beard,
So Benoni wisely waited awhile,
| Till his beard grew out in prophetic style,
And the day that it reached the caps Of his knees,
| He was lost in tumult Of ecstacies.
| Then he got him belt, this leader Of SOULS
| And punched in one end Of it fory-two holes,
| Just two in girding the buckle pass'd,
Leaving forty to number the days Of his fast
On the south Of the mountain is "Devis Dem,
Never entered by angels and seldom by men,
place where the world in the rudest Of shocks,
Had tumbled the biggest and toughest Of rocks,
And thher Benoni bctook him in haste,
With beard to his knees and belt round his waist.
How he felt the first night in the dark and alone,
thunderstorm shaking his chamber OF stone,
The lightning most recklessly :apering round,
Is not on the records and cannot be found,
IT, al 49, IL. u.
Might be hard the with the belt and the beard
Suffice it to say, that he slept not wink
And his thoughts not just what prophet should
think
When the morning appeared with song and breeze,
He sat on stone with his chin on his Knees
At the mouth Of the cave; he was hungry and faint
But he overcame all with the might Of saint.
And took up the first hole into the buckle.
That day day Of the lovliest kind
A Green Mountain day. that men cannot find
Elsewhere, though they seek it unwearied and long.
All radiant with glory and ringing with song.
Benoni came under the spell Of its light,
And forgot he was mortal till just about night,
When the queerest Of feelings developed inside
A sense Of all goneness and general decline,
He counted the holes in his belt-thirty-n nine;
But he argued like this: 1t is always the first
OF a noble endeavor that tries the worst
So he laid down to sleep, unsubdued and alone,
With his hand on his belt and his head on stone.
The dawn came again, dark, dismal and damp,
breeder Of rheumatic, shivers and cramp,
Not beam Of the morning the mountains kissed
And the valleys below wrapt in mist
The prophet crept out to the mouth Of the cave,
On his hands and knees, he was weak, but brave,
He didn't quite fancy the way he felt,
But he took up another hole in his belt.
He was tempted to take up three, right there,
For the belt didn't touch him anywhere,
The morning exactly suited his mind,
To say he was ugly would be unkind,
He was glad all the hills in mist were drowned,
Ind he a;sn'. care uaneh how the world went round
In the grandest flight his soul might take,
And drop to the level Of Johnny cake,
And tempt that prophet with visions there,
OF puddin' and milk in the midst Of prayer.
For mountain appetite, stern and vast,
Is dangerous thing to take into fast
L will bear with neglect for one day through,
But it won't be ,ri1cd with more than two,
And this was the third and the way he fet
Beneath that beard and inside that belt, |
will not tell to this modest crowd,
Suffice it to say that he groaned out loud |
Then tried to sing, but dreadful pain
Would seize him, right in the midst Of strain,
He essayed to read in pious book,
But the tighter he held it the worse it shook,
He thought to recover strength and calm,
By repeating aloud an ancient psalm,
But his lips sealed and his tongue refused
To wag in his mouth-It had been abused.
Then he to his feet, but he couldn't stand, /
Some terrible crisis at hand.
He felt like disaster in every limb,
His shattered senses began to swim
The stones at his feet danced round about
And ghostly forms swept in and out
l he mouth Of that cave with the hungry eyes
II starving man just before he dies.
They from the heights where the fierce winds blow
They came on the mists from the wales below,
They came in squads and they came in troops
With plaintive cries and with startling whoops
And led by chap with horn and hoof
They crowded that cave from floor to roof,
And wrestled and played and danced and sung
IN unearthy song in an unknown tongue.
he refrain Of that song may quote amiss,
But it seemed to sound very much like this:
frOpo he ho,, 81
And we revel tonight in Devils Den."
Then they spied the prophet and groaned and eered
They pulled at his belt and they plucked his beard
They blew in his ears and tickled his feet,
And acted in every way indiscreet
And unbecoming, for those rude days,
With such person in such place.
But the prophet had tainted away, that's all,
And through the night had contrived to crawl
70 the mouth of the cave, chilled thro no doubt
But the sun up and thawed him out.
The bushes around him with berries hung,
Ne birds were busy feeding their young,
The squirrel sat feasting midst leaves DER head
And the woodpecker tapped on the trees for bread
l he morning in glory went sweeping along
With light and with laughter, with feasting and song.
The heart of the prophet began to melt
But the more he revived the worse he felt
And it didn't help his case in the least
With everything happy and at feast
He was tempted to creep up the mountain stairs
And back to the world for general repairs.
He pulled at his beard and he reached for his hat
No prophet could fast in a climate like that!
So human are mortals, that a saint
When beaten will try to believe that he amt
He felt for his pulse, twas as hard to find
As liberal thought in misers mind.
He took up hole in his belt, the third
And last he took up, for something occ urred.
ripe, luscious berry hung close to his nose,
It was full Of temptation and red as a rose.
Oivinely conceived and exquisitely wrought,
I there for moment the next, it was not.
That prophet behaved, then, too lively for rhyme,
4 he smacked his lips once why he did forty times,
And for hours that morning, twas fearful, men say,
TO see him pick berries and put them away,
and there wasn't ripe one left on the track.
He struck to get home, three or four miles back;
Twas folly he said, sinking into chair,
TO dream Of fast amidst Green Mountain air.
rhe thoughts Of Vermonters may crawl, or fly
70 superna heights, they must eat or die.
10 the prophet gave up for time, at least,
md settled down all day feast,
md he tie it hot and he i cold,
ust out of the oven and three days old,
md the way provisions that day were wreckd
Vas enough to worry the very elect.
hen he packed up his goods one night, quite late,
md departed-ino another State.
TEACHERS EXAMINATION.
There will be County Teachers
for Orange County at
T,,oelox onA "Wednesday |